What is a Jew ?

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Ok here's a question I always wanted to understand the answer to . I remember chatting with a group of Israelis on an Israeli chatsite called " yalla " or something ike that , I asked them the same question and guess what : they actually said they didnt know ! Here's the original question I asked : 1. Is Jewish a RELIGION , meaning anyone who converts to Judaeism automatically qualifies to the heritage of Jews ? Can someone RELINQUISH "JEWNESS" ? Why do a large part of Christian descendants of Jews consider themselves Jewish ? 2. Is Jewish an ETHNICITY , meaning it is a race of people with common genetic background who originated from the same geographical location ? What about the majority of Jews today who are descendants of the Eurasian Khazar Jews , who were a Turkish people who mass-converted to Judaeism ? Why is Jewness transmitted MATERNALLY ? 3. Is Jewish a culture and a language , anyone can learn and adopt ? So why are Arabs and Jews MORTAL ENEMIES , inspite of the 2 languages being OBVIOUSLY of the same extract and the ONLY surviving SEMITIC LANGUAGES ? Shouldnt that make Jews and Arabs practically the variations of the SAME ORIGINAL CULTURE ? 4. Is Jewish a NATIONALITY , by becoming a citizen of the state of Israel ? Why arent Arabs who live their now considered Jews ? Also , why werent the other SEMITIC peoples who lived in Judea and Israel since biblical times considered Jews , like the ARAMEANS ?